Casting Couch: Robert Downey Jr. Re-Teaming With Jon Favreau, Timothy Olyphant Re-Teaming With a Cowboy Hat, and More

What is Casting Couch? It’s your place to catch up with all of the casting news that broke over the weekend. Just a couple days away from the Internet and you missed news involving Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, and Samuel L. Jackson. Catch up!

One of the biggest reasons Robert Downey Jr. is experiencing a huge career resurgence right now is that Jon Favreau fought to cast him as the lead in the first Iron Man movie. After Downey killed it in that movie and he and Favreau made about a gabillion dollars together on it and the sequel, one would imagine a lifetime friendship was forged. That’s why, even though Favreau’s next film is a little indie dramedy he’s starring in himself called Chef, he’s still able to call in a big favor and have a huge star like Downey join the ensemble cast. Variety reports that Downey is now on board to work in the film alongside actors like Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, and Bobby Cannavale.

Timothy Olyphant

Timothy Olyphant just got another job playing a lawman in a wild town. Variety is reporting that the Deadwood vet is set to get tough once again for Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego’s (Apollo 18) upcoming thriller The Man on Carrion Road, which will cast him as the sheriff of a border town who must team up with a retired lawman in order to clean up the mess left after a botched Mexican cartel deal brings terror to the townsfolk. Sheriff, border town, drug cartel—this all sounds like an amazing opportunity for Olyphant to show off how good he looks in a cowboy hat again. Sign me up.

Taryn Manning

Due to her work in things like 8 Mile, Hustle & Flow, and Sons of Anarchy, Taryn Manning has to be seen as the go-to actress when you need someone to play young white trash. It’s kind of her niche. That’s why it’s no surprise to hear that she’s going to be playing a failed actress turned single mom turned junkie in a new movie called Low Down. According to THR, Low Down stars John Hawkes as a jazz pianist who played with all the greats, Elle Fanning as his daughter, the character who we see the story through the eyes of, and folk like Glenn Close, Peter Dinklage, and Flea, who will be performing in various other roles. That’s quite the eclectic cast Ms. Manning is joining there. Sounds interesting.

Oscar Isaac

Speaking of drugs,there seems to be another Pablo Escobar movie in the works. Deadline is reporting that Inside Llewyn Davis star, Oscar Isaac, has just signed on to star as the legendary drug dealer in a new biopic coming from The Lincoln Lawyer director, Brad Furman. Word has it that Furman has been trying to get an Escobar movie going for quite a while, and this one will see him working from a Black List script by Matt Aldrich, so hopefully we can count on this one being a little bit more interesting than your usual, paint by numbers biopic.

Ansel Elgort

Apparently teen heartthrob Ansel Elgort and up-and-coming young actress Shailene Woodley looked so great together in the footage coming back from that upcoming YA adaptation, Divergent, that they’re already getting slotted in to star in another movie together. Variety reports that, after going in for a screen test, Elgort has just been added as the male lead in Josh Boone’s upcoming The Fault in Our Stars. This is the one about two young people who meet and fall in love during cancer treatment. Not only will this role give Elgort an excuse to share some smooches with Woodley, but it will also afford him the opportunity to pretend like he doesn’t have a leg, so you have to imagine it’s something that’s going to look pretty good on his resume going forward.

Nicole Kidman

HBO Films has once again landed an A-list Hollywood talent for one of their upcoming projects. Deadline is reporting that mega-star Nicole Kidman has agreed to executive produce and take the lead role in Reconstructing Amelia, an adaptation of Kimberly McCreight’s debut novel about a workaholic single mother who uncovers secrets about her teenage daughter after the girl commits suicide and she goes looking for answers. This one is set in a posh, Brooklyn private school, so prepare to be shocked by the fact that rich white kids get involved in bad stuff too. Scandalous!

Kate Winslet

You know who else is an A-list actress? Kate Winslet. She killed Leonardo DiCaprio out in the ocean and whatnot. It’s looking like her next role is going to come via a revenge movie of sorts called The Dressmaker. According to Screen Daily, the story sees her playing a character who returns to the remote Australian town she fled as a child after being accused as a murderer. Upon her return she’s all sexy and liberated, and this being the 40s, the menfolk don’t take kindly to that. Her return then becomes an especially hot button issue once she starts making dishy dresses for all of the women in the town and serves as an inspiration for them to start thinking differently as well. In addition to the revenge, some romance is also promised. The line for this one starts to the left, ladies.

Samuel L. Jackson

Welp, it’s looking like Samuel L. Jackson finally found a movie to star in that sounds more ridiculous than Snakes on Plane. Deadline is reporting that he’s just been attached to a movie called Big Game, which will see him playing the President of the United States in a ridiculous scenario wherein Air Force One gets shot down over the wilderness by terrorists and the President’s escape pod is found by a shy 13-year-old boy who is living out in the woods as a test of manhood. After the crash landing, the two then team up in what has the potential to be the awesomest story of survival ever told. If the 13-year-old ends up wrestling a bear, then we’ll know for sure that we’re in for something special.

Correction: An earlier version of this post claimed that Timothy Olyphant had appeared in Lawless when, in fact, he didn’t. But he probably should have. We regret the error.

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